CHEMICAL UPDATE: ORNAMENTAL CONTROLS

By Eric Liskey, editor

Turf may seem to get all the attention, but a wide variety of effective products is available to treat pest problems of ornamentals. Good thing, too. The wider range of plant material compared to turf necessitates a wider range of controls. This is our annual Chemical Update dedicated to pest controls for landscape ornamentals.

Integrated pest management in ornamentals depends heavily on choosing plants that tolerate prevalent pests, as well as maintaining plants in a healthy, vigorous condition. If you address these two issues, you will reduce or eliminate many, if not most, pest problems. However, it's inevitable that some outbreaks will occur, and when they do, you need a way to control them. The tables on the following pages provide you with a summary of pest-control options for ornamentals. You'll find listings for:

Insecticides. This table shows you active ingredients that have registration for insects, mites and other categories of landscape pests. It includes basic product characteristics such as form of application (spray, granular, trunk injection, etc.), mode of action, chemical family and systemic properties. The table also shows the chemicals that are registered to control the listed pests.

Herbicides. This table lists herbicides — both pre-emergents and post-emergents — with registration for use in landscape ornamentals. Due to space limitations, we do not list individual weed species. (See our Turfgrass Update: Herbicides, published annually in January's Grounds Maintenance and also available on our website, for weed-specific cross-referencing.) With post-emergents, we show which weed types — broadleaves, grasses or sedges — selective chemicals control, or if the chemical is non-selective. For each category, a separate table shows you available brands and suppliers for each active ingredient.

Fungicides. The fungicide table shows similar information, including categories for the major fungal pests of ornamentals.

This Update does not cover registrations for greenhouse, container or field-grown ornamentals, nor does it include products specifically for household, nuisance or structural pests. Pests controlled are grouped together due to space limitations. However, you must identify the specific pest you wish to control and then ensure that the labeling of the product you wish to use allows that use. These tables are not recommendations or substitutes for label information. They are for preliminary planning only.

Although many of the products listed here possess registration for turf in addition to ornamentals, many do not. Therefore, it is not safe to assume that products you see listed here are suitable for use on turfgrass.